Ballots to remain uncounted in MI and Stein blocked in Philly. Guest: Election integrity, law expert Paul Lehto says this proves 'only option is to get it right on Election Night'. Also: Trump taps climate denier, fossil-fuel tool for EPA...

All of the Cable News Channels are ignoring them for the most part. You can watch them on C-SPAN and via their website.

Feel free to use this thread to post your thoughts on the hearings. Mine: Alberto Gonzales should be investigated.

UPDATE: C-SPAN will rerun the hearings in full beginning at 8pm ET. Crooks & Liars has the opening salvo where the Republicans fought to keep Gonzales from testifying under oath (and they won). Scroll further down his page for some other high/lowlights from the hearings. Though the best parts came late in the day. Hopefully he'll have some up later. Or perhaps we will.

Diebold Inc., one of America's largest voting machine companies, likes to claim that there's never been any substantial problem with their touch-screen machines in any election in America.

You may not be surprised to hear that claim is patently untrue.

As reported in yesterday's Middletown Journal, a special "re-vote" will be held tomorrow in Montgomery county, OH on an issue where last November's election results were set aside due to more votes being cast on Diebold's AccuVote TSX touch-screen voting machines than there were actually registered voters who voted!

CARLISLE --- Voters will have another opportunity Tuesday in a special election to decide whether the city should have a combined fire and emergency medical services department with 24-hour staffing or continue as a volunteer fire department.

This is the second time in three months this levy has been before voters. Last November, the levy was narrowly defeated.

But those election results were set aside due to voting irregularities from the new electronic touch screen voting machines.

More votes were cast than there were registered voters in the city's Montgomery County precinct. The city contested the results, and the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court ordered Tuesday's special election at Montgomery County's cost.

Montgomery County is one of 41 counties in Ohio to have added new Diebold AccuVote TSX touch-screen (DRE) voting machines for last November's election.

In that election, remarkable and virtually inexplicable results occurred across the state in regard to four Election Reform initiatives on the ballot, all of which were predicted to pass by large margins in a historically accurate poll released just prior to Election Day. We wrote about the "staggeringly impossible" results of that election back in November. Those results have still not been explained, despite 44 of 88 counties in the Buckeye State using all-new touch-screen voting machines for the first time in that election.

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The January 30 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

Yes, that's right. The War on Iraq is now costing the United States $100,000 of your tax dollars per minute:

The White House said Thursday that it plans to ask Congress for an additional $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving the cost of military operations in the two countries to $120 billion this year, the highest ever.

Most of the new money would pay for the war in Iraq, which has cost an estimated $250 billion since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

The additional spending, along with other war funding the Bush administration will seek separately in its regular budget next week, would push the price tag for combat and nation-building since Sept. 11, 2001, to nearly a half-trillion dollars, approaching the inflation-adjusted cost of the 13-year Vietnam War.
...
No large-scale reconstruction projects are included in the spending, officials said.

Currently, the Defense Department says it is spending about $4.5 billion a month on the conflict in Iraq, or about $100,000 per minute.

Heckuva job.

By way of contrast, you may remember what Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress about the cost of the war on March 27, 2003: "We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."

And before that, while the Administration was ensuring we'd go to war with Iraq no matter what, Rummy said on January 19, 2003: "The Office of Management and Budget, has come up come up with a number that's something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question."

CommonDreams has now voiced their concerns over regressive and restrictive voting rights legislation in GA, OH, and PA. Newspapers in PA are now editorializing against the VoterID bill that will reduce turnout and ensure some voters do not vote. Officials in Vanderburgh Co., IN are now talking about a probe into why 46 machines sat unused in a warehouse in Nov. 2004 while voters waited in long lines to vote....

Yes, that's right. The War on Iraq is now costing the United States $100,000 of your tax dollars per minute:

The White House said Thursday that it plans to ask Congress for an additional $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving the cost of military operations in the two countries to $120 billion this year, the highest ever.

Most of the new money would pay for the war in Iraq, which has cost an estimated $250 billion since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

The additional spending, along with other war funding the Bush administration will seek separately in its regular budget next week, would push the price tag for combat and nation-building since Sept. 11, 2001, to nearly a half-trillion dollars, approaching the inflation-adjusted cost of the 13-year Vietnam War.
...
No large-scale reconstruction projects are included in the spending, officials said.

Currently, the Defense Department says it is spending about $4.5 billion a month on the conflict in Iraq, or about $100,000 per minute.

Heckuva job.

By way of contrast, you may remember what Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress about the cost of the war on March 27, 2003: "We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."

And before that, while the Administration was ensuring we'd go to war with Iraq no matter what, Rummy said on January 19, 2003: "The Office of Management and Budget, has come up come up with a number that's something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question."

Josh says (he said it yesterday, but I'm just getting caught up with it today)...

Interesting. Allen Raymond, one of the guys at the center of the New Hampshire phone-jamming case, was sentenced today up in New Hampshire.

In court, his lawyer, John Durkin, said that when Raymond was executing the election tampering plot he "was acting at the behest of the state and federal Republican parties (italics included)."

The call came from the campaign committee run by Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN). Jim Tobin, who's now appealing his conviction, was the guy who worked for Frist's committee, the NRSC.

This investigation ain't over.

For more info on that Republican Election Phone-Jamming case, see this previous coverage, as well as this report for details on the RNC itself footing the legal bills for Tobin and friends. For still more, search BRAD BLOG for the word "Tobin".

VoteTrustUSA has provided us an excellent article on effective testing of election software. We also have an article on HR-4666, the House bill to slow up the implementation of HAVA. Is the state of Florida manipulating the certification of AutoMARK to ensure it is not used in the state? (February 3, 1959 "The Day The Music Died")...

In Vanderburgh County, IN voters were forced to stand in long lines in Nov. 2004 and some walked away in frustration. The county council has been investigating prior to spending the money to buy more machines. They've now found that 46 machines were left in storage rather than to be used. PA has begun the legislative actions to keep voters from voting. On the national scene HR-550 has picked up another co-sponsor and new legislation that will slow down HAVA has been filed....

There may finally be some progress made in Maricopa County, AZ where the FBI has stepped in and subpoenaed to get control of the ballots from Nov. 2004. These ballots may show if there was massive election fraud or voting machine failure. A vvpat bill has been proposed for the GA Senate. Congressman Fitzpatrick (PA) has filed a new bill, HR-4666, that will allow states until Nov. 2006 to comply fully with HAVA without penalty. This bill has bi-partisan support. I also need to clarify a statement I made in the preamble to yesterday's DVN; I reported that Vote-PAD had gotten a favorable opinion from the DoJ. In fact, the DoJ did not give an opinion one way or another they just made it clear that they saw nothing to stop Wisconsin from using it....

Vote-PAD, the simple plastic and paper voting device meant to assist voters with disabilities and provide a countable paper ballot as an alternative to the expensive, insecure, un-recountable, hackable Electronic Voting Machines made by companies such as Diebold and ES&S, has just been approved for use by the state of Wisconsin!

According to a just-issued press release (posted in full at the bottom of this item), Vote-PAD, which derives it's name from "Voting-on-Paper Assistive Device", is announcing that the Wisconsin State Elections Board has approved the device for use in the state after conferring with attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Recently we reported on the Vote-PAD, describing it as a simple, non-electronic voting device that "could save American democracy." The company had just announced their first contract with Yolo County, California at the time. The new announcement by Wisconsin represents the first full state to announce their approval of the Vote-PAD device for use by disabled voters.

The Wisconsin announcement notably includes information on clearance for use of the device after consultations with attorneys in the "Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice," according to an email obtained by The BRAD BLOG. The email was written by the executive director of Wisconsin's State Elections Board, and will likely kick national interest in Vote-PAD into high gear...

As we reported in January the Maricopa County, AZ elections officials and county attorney have done all they can do to keep anyone from looking at the ballots from the Nov. 2004 District 20 race. As you may recall, the matter came into question after a recount in a Republican Primary race revealed 439 ballots magically appearing and which resulted in the final results of the election being changed. The county has even gone to the lengths of refusing subpoenas from a State Senate committee to provide the ballots, even after an expert was brought in to examine the voting machinery and found the optical scan counters completely out of calibration. The expert said that examination of the ballots was the only way to determine what had actually happened.

Today The Arizona Republic announced that the FBI has now stepped in and provided a court ordered subpoena for those ballots.

The paper reports:

County Treasurer David Schweikert refused to release them, saying he needed a valid court order before he would relinquish control.

On Tuesday, he got one.

"We were just elated," Schweikert said of the moment his secretary called him to say that there were FBI agents waiting for him in his office. "I know it sounds odd to be elated to receive a subpoena, but it was what we'd all been asking for."

It seems odd that Schweikert would refuse to obey a subpoena from the state legislature and then be delighted when he got a subpoena for the same thing from the FBI. We are just going to have to continue to watch this extraordinary case and see where the twisted road continues to lead us.